Longtime Summit chief financial officer plans to retire

SUMMIT -- Summit’s longtime chief financial officer submitted his retirement late last month, and the council president said Tuesday big changes could be in store for the city’s financial departments.

Ronald Angelo served Summit for more than 29 years, according to council president David Bomgaars, who called him a respected and valued department head.

“He had an extremely good relationship as the administrations change, but also with the career staff members within state government,” Bomgaars said. “Ron did things for the city that really weren’t in his job description as such. He was the primary organizer of our annual Fourth of July celebration.”

Angelo will stay on Summit’s payroll as an on-call consultant until June 30 at full salary, and then will take vacation days, formally retiring on Sept. 14, Bomgaars said.
In his last year, Angelo was paid a salary of $136,394 without benefits, according to city administrator Christopher Cotter.

Now that Angelo is no longer working full-time, assistant chief financial officer and treasurer Scott Olsen has taken on the interim position, and the department has hired on part-time help until a new chief financial officer is hired, which Cotter said will likely happen this fall.

Cotter said that when the position is filled, money will most likely be saved, because Angelo’s pay exceeded the normal scale of $91,000 to $123,000 because of his longevity.

Bomgaars said that Olsen has the finance committee’s confidence and would be considered as a key candidate to replace Angelo on a permanent basis.

“He’s been told that the job is his to have based on his performance in this interim period,” Bomgaars said.

In addition, the offices of the tax collector, tax assessor and chief financial officer may be combined for further cost savings, according to Bomgaars.

“We see those three departments merging,” Bomgaars said Tuesday.

Any mergers within those departments wouldn’t disrupt a shared services deal that currently means Summit and New Providence share a tax assessor, according to Cotter.
Instead, Cotter said, some full-time positions might be converted to part-time positions to save money.